Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who has used his muscle in Albany to kill two major projects that weren’t in the interests of Madison Square Garden, once turned to the arena’s owners to hire his then-pregnant daughter, The Post has learned.

Silver’s daughter, Esti Fried, was hired as a temporary office worker at the arena during the summer of 2003 when she was about seven months pregnant – under a directive “that came from the top,” the source said.

Fried stayed at the post, which paid about $15 an hour, for roughly two months until the blackout of 2003 hit and she left, presumably to give birth, the source said.

A spokesman for the Garden, Barry Watkins, defended the hiring. “She was well qualified for the position and did an excellent job in her time with the company,” he said.

The hiring of Silver’s daughter came as the battle over a West Side Stadium plan was just heating up. MSG bosses Charles and James Dolan were adamantly opposed to a new football stadium that would create a competitor to their arena’s Manhattan monopoly.

The Dolans’ Cablevision, which owns the Garden, spent $34 million on lobbying and advertising to block the project.

Despite that record level of spending, the $2.2 billion stadium plan for the Jets won every government approval, except for one – that of the Public Authorities Control Board, where Silver has a deciding vote.

A spokesman for Silver could not be reached yesterday.

The job for Silver’s daughter also came as plans were being formulated to convert the Farley Post Office into the Moynihan Train Station, a $900 million project that could also serve as a site for a new Madison Square Garden on the Ninth Avenue side of the building.

Silver last month refused to back the Moynihan project that has been in the works for 12 years. Silver has insisted that he wants to wait for a more complete plan that would include a proposal for a new arena and a renovated Penn Station.

The Dolans, major campaign donors to both parties, have been generous to Silver and his political causes. From 2000 through 2003, they donated $24,150 to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee and $10,300 to Silver’s campaign, state records show.

And Silver, a diehard Ranger fan, has been a guest at the Dolans’ luxury box at MSG. In March, the state Lobbying Commission fined Cablevision $75,000 for failing to report the entertainment of Silver and other lawmakers as lobbying costs.